Blog Posts Tagged with "DoD"

With all the attention pointed towards PRISM, another interesting publication was virtually overlooked. Earlier last month, a taskforce belonging to the US DoD's Defense Science Board (DSB) released a final report titled "Resilient Military Systems and the Advanced Cyber Threat" [PDF], that reports on the findings of an 18-month research project.

Panetta has warned of cyber attacks against critical infrastructure and that opponents are increasing their cyber capabilities and represent a serious menace. The words used last Thursday are very strong: The US is in a “pre-9/11 moment,” referring to a possible series of cyber attacks...

According to a new report from the DoD Inspector General, security policies "often overlap, are fragmentary, or inconsistent". The sheer volume of policies that are not integrated makes it difficult for those in the field to ensure consistent and comprehensive policy implementation...

Cyber war is complicated and defending systems demands world-class engineers and technicians and the military must compete with other public agencies and the private sector in attracting these specialists. Having the right people in the right places with the right training is the best defense against any attack...

The DOD has specific challenges that require careful adoption considerations, especially in areas of cybersecurity, continuity of operations, information assurance, and resilience. Additional challenges include service acquisition and funding, data migration and management, and overcoming network dependence...

“I'm very concerned at the potential in cyber to be able to cripple our power grid, to be able to cripple our government systems, to be able to cripple our financial systems. It would virtually paralyze this country. And as far as I'm concerned, that represents the potential for another Pearl Harbor… using cyber"...

“If you’re moving information into the cloud, it just seems to me that all kinds of nasty activity could go on in there. I would take a Missouri approach and say, ‘prove it to me, show it to me,’ how it’s more secure,” said former director of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance for the Air Force...

“Although cyberspace presents some very unique characteristics, this transitional model is designed to continue DoD’s efforts at normalizing cyber as an integrated function with other land, maritime, air and space functions,” DoD spokesperson Lt. Col. April Cunningham said...

Earlier this month, we gave the green light to two long-awaited Defense Industrial Base (DIB) efforts designed to help companies protect critical information. The programs allow eligible DIB companies and the Government to share cybersecurity information...

"In 2011, computer networks and systems around the world continued to be targets of intrusions and data theft, many of which originated within China. Although some of the targeted systems were U.S. government-owned, others were commercial networks owned by private companies..."

US cyber defenses will now include more than just the US Cyber Command and the Department of Homeland Security. Eventually it may include somewhere around 8,000 contractors, mostly defense contractors. Of course the conspiracy theorists will begin screaming “big brother”...

The United States continues to face a significant risk that critical Defense information networks can be compromised by malicious actors resulting in economic losses or damage to national security. The DIB CS/IA Program is designed to improve DIB network defenses...

"We deal with all aspects of cyber security. How to defend all our information. We have a lot of R&D to protect. There are those who want to get in and maliciously disable or damage or change information. We’re so heavily dependent on our network for a national security role..."

Iranian officials recently released claims that they have finished their reverse engineering of the downed US stealth drone and will begin to make a copy. The Iranians released information they say was encrypted flight and maintenance data from internal databases...

"As we learned through the events of Wiki Leaks, we had a blind spot in protecting our classified networks... We have a national strategy and program to implement a Public Key Infrastructure hardware based authentication system on the classified network - hence the SIPRNet token..."

"If there is significant information of a cyber-event, we reserve the right to use tools in our toolbox,. When does a cyber-attack achieve critical level? When one can attribute an attack that deliberately causes loss of life," a U.S. official stated...